Generation Zero (2019)

Today and yesterday, I spent most of my playtime working on the base defense add-on content. It's pretty rad, not gonna lie. I wish there were more customization and decoration options, in the style of Fallout. But as a gameplay loop, it's very satisfying to design a base layout and test it against a few waves of enemies. The rewards are pretty nice as well but I think the quantity would make playing this mode a little more lucrative and worth the player's time.

Something I really like is that when you deconstruct your defenses, you get all your materials back. This is great because you can redesign and rebuild defenses to your heart's content. Materials are already relatively hard to come by so if there were a penalty or loss for deconstructing, it would really disincentivize the experimentation. That said, I find it strange that you can't MOVE a structure once placed; you have to deconstruct it and build it again.

I've only been successful with Easy and Medium difficulty modes so far. For Hard, I think another human player will be needed. Most of the waves consist of the larger boss-like enemies and the 10-per-base limit of 'offensive' defenses like missile turrets and machine gun nests just doesn't cut it, especially since it's usually multiple mobs coming from multiple directions. It would be nice if there were a way to upgrade the build limit somehow.

The space provided for building is pretty large. To me, it seems they're almost too large. Much larger than the building limits are optimized for at least. It doesn't make any sense to have only 10 machine gun nests to cover such a large area. So all of my bases have been very small, to provide the best concentrated coverage. The first base I built had a long perimeter and it was too large to defend.

I also wish we could build things on top of one another. Would also be cool to get some kind of bridge connecting platforms.

Also, a side thought: I wonder why bulk crafting is not a thing in this game. Was it just overlooked or is there a development barrier to that feature/its absence? Either way, this game could really use it. I'm tired of mashing my X button to restock on 7.62 AP ammo.

Shocking. That's the word that comes to mind when prompted to describe this game. As I write this update at around the 60-hours-played mark, I don't know how it doesn't have a larger following. I heard the launch was rough but as the game stands now, it's beyond impressive for the budget the developers likely had to work with. It's stuffed to the brim with content. Everything from the map size to the way the guns feel is shocking. Just...shocking.

The map is massive in a way that feels earned, or authentic. In this day and age of open-world fatigue, so many of the maps in those games feel like they were made to be big for the sake of it but this Swedish island feels real. A criticism I've seen argues that the world is boring and empty, but truth be told, the real world can be pretty boring and empty in some places. Not every open world needs to feel like a playground. This place feels real and that's enough to keep me immersed and wanting me to keep going.

And this claim that the world is empty and boring doesn't strike me as particularly accurate; I never tire of seeing what's over the next hill or gazing off into the distance to see what quaint rural settlement awaits my plundering hands. I frequently stop to look around at the trees and admire the wilderness, listening to the wind and watching the branches sway back and forth, angling my camera to observe the rays of sunlight penetrating the pine branches (though it would be nice to hear birds chirping or see some evidence of wildlife, both of which are notably absent from the game; I'm not sure if there are story-related reasons for this or not).

The world is empty in other ways, however. In terms of other players, other characters, and so on, this emptiness lends itself to the eerie atmosphere of the game. Survivors of the game's cataclysmic story events are few and far between and never venture beyond the confines of their varied safe spaces scattered in remote areas across the island. You're on your own and there's no doubt about it. Instead of coming across living NPCs throughout the world, it's evidence of their past doings and the bodies of those who weren't so lucky you encounter.

We fight robots in Generation Zero. Some are small and some are giant. The small ones, known as Ticks in the game, are insufferably annoying which is probably by design. Some of the larger enemies are fun to go toe-to-toe with, with firefights lasting sometimes ten minutes or more depending on how many other enemies get pulled into the battle. It's clear that this combat loop was designed with other players in mind but playing solo isn't too hard as long as one keeps moving, avoids incoming rockets and machine gun fire, maintains proper distance from targets, and is well prepared before the engagement. Enemies have many tools at their disposal to turn the player into ground beef. If the player gets too close to one of the larger enemies, they can be trampled underfoot or sent flying several meters away by a sonic wave. If the player sticks to cover for too long, they'll be met with mortar-like rocket fire. These machines were designed to account for traditional military gun-and-cover tactics and it shows.

And that plays into the story. It's nothing to write home about but it's intriguing all the same. The origin of these machines is unknown for a large portion of the game. They're clearly manmade but they still have a strange and alien feel to them, something that is touched on with some of the information you find out in the world, where various NPCs contest these machines are extraterrestrial in origin.

To solve the mystery, the player simply needs to play the game. We aren't gifted with a ton of exposition. Information is gathered from the missions and data files found throughout the world. There are no tiresome cutscenes or tedious exchanges of dialogue to sit through. The player finds a mission item, checks the text or listens to the audio, and carries on. It's an old-school way of telling a story in a game and it's very enjoyable for me. By allowing the story to sit in the background rather than be the centerpiece of the game, player agency is maintained. I dread nothing more than cutscenes, especially those that can't be skipped (looking at you, Ghost of Tsushima, you motherfucker).

Crafting and looting are both very satisfying. Just about everything you pick up is worth picking up. Junk can be scrapped into valuable crafting resources and while there is plenty of ammo to be found throughout the world, whether it's from looting destroyed machines or containers in military checkpoints, crafting ammo becomes a necessity once the player determines what weapons they want to focus on using.

The level cap is unlimited but apparently, there are a limited number of skill points to use. That's a shame because a solo player would benefit strongly from having all the skills unlocked. At the same time, I understand the design choice behind this. If all players could unlock every skill, there would be no real benefit from playing with other players, as there would be no division of labor.

I haven't gotten to play the game with anyone else yet but a friend of mine recently picked it up after sharing my screen and showing him the ins and outs of the game. It will be interesting to play with builds and different tools and gear.

Played during Steam free trial. Started as the soldier guy on Guerrilla difficulty (the hardest). Looted the beginning and enjoyed the feeling of scavenging; felt a lot like State of Decay. I especially liked being able to open car doors and trunks looking for loot. Noticed a car off in the water and wondered if I could swim to it; nope. I don't think that counted as a death. I snuck towards the 1st robot and prepared for battle. Fired a few shots, did not kill it and ran back to the police car for cover. It tried to flank but I was hard pressed to keep up, hmm need to raise the sensitivity a bit after this. Killed it but I took a lot of damage.

Heal up and sneak off in the woods away from the road. Stop and scout with the binoculars every now and then. There was another robot but I skirted around it rather than fight in the open. Came to a traffic accident with 2 robots off in the distance. Managed to loot the cars without being detected. Wonder if I can take them from the cars as cover. Nope, turns out cars are not good cover. I did severely damage 1 though and after respawning I came back to finish them off. Next up was a group of 3. No way I can take 3 so I snuck around and scoped out the church. Damn there are a lot of bots there. Sure would be nice if I had a sniper rifle instead of this garbage pistol. Hang on, I have a side quest to check out a hunter's house. He has to have a rifle. So I snuck up that way avoiding combat and found that there were 3 robots at the house. Damn. Well I am getting that rifle. So I watch them for a while and plan my approach. I circle around to the back to behind the shed. Peek around until the coast is clear and open the shed to go inside. Wait for a bot to stop just outside and ambush. Took that sucker out and the other 2 did not notice. Killed the 2nd but this time the 3rd noticed and came into the shed. I realized from trying to shoot through the gaps from some lawn furniture that I was hitting invisible walls. Damn how much ammo did I just waste? So I stepped out of that cover and unloaded on the bot. Shot off its gun and it rammed me from short range and I died. Sneak all the way back to finish that bot and get that sweet hunting rifle and scope. But no ammo for it. I triple checked the entire grounds. That can't be right. Surely the game would not give me this much needed weapon upgrade but no bullets to actually use it. Damnit. Ok maybe the hunter took his bullets out hunting and I found his spare rifle.

I ended up killing several more bots at a nearby camp by using individual trees as cover. Then I took out the ones around some police cars by attacking from the ridge above them, where they could not reach. I did die a few more times and at some point dropped the difficulty to normal. It was like playing a tactical shooter against multiple opponents with much better health and accuracy than you, and I was running out of med kits; doable but annoyingly difficult. So I went back to the church and snuck inside. I had hunting rifle ammo now but not much. I killed all of the bots from the safety in the church. Odd how they won't come inside after me.

The next lot of bots I shot at and ran all the way back to the church to repeat the previous easy victory. Killed my 1st hunter by failing to do any significant damage with the rifle and running to a boulder. Did not think I would make it but when it came around the boulder I unloaded 12 gauge into its face. Good old trusty shotgun corner camping. I had an epic fight where I fought off several dog bots from a tiny alcove on the back of a massive boulder. I really did not think I would survive that but the bots only flanked around enough to get access to that nook1 at a time with just barely enough time to heal and reload. I eventually found a 7.62 assault rifle and used that as my main weapon. I got good at one shotting the dogs with my now silenced hunting rifle, using the pistol at close range and the assault rifle in the open and for hunters. I put my level up points into the Commando tree for stealth. I also liked Marksman and the armor boost in Vanguard, but from my experience thus far stealth is key. I put 1 point in each ability to get the commando specialization as soon as possible, then maxed out visibility reduction. That is where I ended. Next point would go into crouch speed, then noise reduction, then max health, and then go into vanguard for armor. After that I am not sure if I want to go for Vanguard specialization for more armor or start on Marksman.

I cleared out everything and did not have much trouble with the combat until the 2nd church, where my playtime ended. There were 2 bosses there; a harvester and a tank. They were both level 3 or 4 named rivals that spawned long ago. That fight was ridiculous, taking 2+ hours and 1000+ bullets. I tried to snipe the harvester from the church at extreme range but did not seem to be doing damage. And those rockets it shoots! I snuck closer to a barn and was still not sure how to win. I lowered the difficulty to easy because those rockets were almost one shotting me and fighting a high level boss is not the way to learn how to fight a new enemy. It would constantly shoot rockets and I had to deal with dogs and hunters. Ended up opening another door and timing a few accurate shots to its launchers in between each barrage. After I destroyed those it kept summoning new hunters; how is that fair? I had to sneak out, throw a flare to make it turn, unload at the back and run back to the barn before getting shot too much by the hunter. The drops in no way made up for the ammo I spent.

Next was the tank. Despite being literally just several meters from the barn it did not join the battle. I had a sweet position lined up where it was standing in front of a pile of logs, protecting me from damage, while I had a clear shot to its face. Eventually I did all the damage I could and it got bored and wandered off to the church. It was patrolling back and forth just outside so I put down a land mine. That pissed it off. I tried to shoot it but it would not stop shooting and instantly knew where I was; whether the back door, front or bell tower. I had to run a few km away to break combat. I legit did look up how to kill tanks. Ok there is stuff on the back to shoot. Easier said than done. By this point it had wandered off down the road with no cover around. I stalked it wondering how I could possibly attack without getting killed. It turned around so I put down my last 2 land mines. It hit 1 and the detection meter went to full orange. Oh shit I think as I stealth down a slope towards a river to stay out of sight. I circle back to pick up the other mine as the tank is going towards the river. Drop the mine, 3 propane tanks for good measure and a radio lure. Sneak off down the road; that 1 point in crouch speed is coming in handy right now. Turn around to see the bot slowly approach the radio and boom it was flat on it's back. Yeah take that you bastard! What an epic way to finish my play.

I like the game as it somewhat reminds me of games like Stalker, Metro, and Fallout 3+. The graphics, lighting effects and audio are amazing. Particularly impressed with the flashlight, which illuminates a good distance and ambience. The stealth is also very impressive. I was able to use individual trees to break line of sight and prevent detection. There was also one time when I snuck through a tree branch and that made enough noise to alert the nearby hunter and it immediately started towards me (but did not see me). The game has very good world building and atmosphere. The story is a little weak and I was not entirely sure who I was supposed to be. I did not really like the die and respawn system without real penalty. Would have preferred a singleplayer pause and save system, or at least some kind of retcon or time warp to prevent suicidal zerg rushing. The worst part though is the robot AI and balance in that they are both too difficult and too easy. There are too many bots for a single player and they are too good at combat in the open. Things like instantly knowing where the player is, hyper accurate shooting even at ridiculous ranges when you are outright sprinting and zig zagging, and infinite ammo. But then the bots are too stupid to enter buildings, making them almost trivial to deal with. There was one point where I was in the back of a truck fighting a hunter, but rather than go to the back where it would literally be like shooting fish in a barrel, it insisted on trying to shoot through the side. There is no shooting through cover or building destruction. A house would not save you if an enemy turned it into swiss cheese and that harvester and tank could simply koolaid man that barn and church, nevermind what rockets would do to a wooden building.

All the game really needs is pathfinding to let the bots go anywhere the player can, assuming they can fit, some way to discourage hiding in buildings from the ones that won't fit, and tone down their numbers, autotracking and long range accuracy, especially in the beginning. Overall decent game that could be a solid 7/10 with some tweaks. I enjoyed it enough that I will buy it when it goes super cheap.